by J. M. Lee
Then he found it. Not the tallest tree of the copse, but the sturdiest, with a wide base and gnarled roots. Its glow was not even the brightest, its layers of bark somewhat dimming its inner glow. Amri smiled when he touched the tree’s skin with both hands. He could hear everything through its body—the whole mountain, every buried water source and frozen river vein. Every street of Ha’rar, every trickle of water that ran below every Vapra home.
“This one,” Amri said. “This is the one.”
Kylan stood beside him, touching the tree’s bark. “Are you sure?”
Amri had never been so sure of anything. All the anxiousness and worry about whether he would be able to find the right tree, deliver the message—light the Vapra fire—washed away as he looked upon the ancient tree.
“It has grown here since long before the Vapra arrived,” he said. “Before Ha’rar. This tree knows the entire mountain, the entire valley. Runs under the citadel and through every street of Ha’rar. If it agrees to carry Tavra’s message, every Gelfling in the snowy land will see her dream. Hear her voice, and know they are not alone . . . Are you ready?”
Kylan gulped, eyes wide, staring at the tree. He took his firca from his jerkin and glanced to Tavra. “I’m ready. Tavra?”
Tavra darted down Amri’s arm, hesitating on his hand before stepping onto the bark itself. The light from inside the tree glowed when she touched it, filling her crystal body with its radiance.
“Ready,” she said. “Amri, if this works and we light the flames of resistance within the hearts of the Vapra, I and the rest of my clan will be indebted to you and the Grottan.”
A wave of calm washed over Amri as they stood in the Waystar’s light.
“Light and dark are not in opposition,” he said. “The Vapra. The Grottan . . .” He nodded to Kylan. “The Spriton—all of the clans. We may be seven, all distinct and special. But we are all a part of the clan called Gelfling. It is time to gather as one.”
Tavra twinkled. “Indeed,” she said.
“Now go on!” Amri cried. “Do the thing! We don’t have much time left.”
Kylan nodded and raised his firca to his lips. He played the first tone, a harmony that Amri recalled from when the song teller had played before the Sanctuary Tree. As he did, the brightness of the ring of trees intensified, light rippling along the boughs of the trees and into their transparent leaves.
“And now Tavra . . .” Amri breathed. He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the tree’s rough bark. Tried to dreamfast with it, the way Naia could. It wasn’t a gift possible for him, but he tried anyway. Please. Carry Tavra’s song to the Gelfling below. Let them know the truth, before they are blinded by the Skeksis’ lies.
A light flashed in Amri’s mind, like a spark lit in the place where dreams were born. He saw the three of them standing before the copse of trees. Three of them—Tavra was with them, resplendent in her Vapra gowns, a silver circlet on her brow. As Kylan played the firca, its song resonating into the tree’s core, Tavra spoke. As she did, her words were etched upon the tree, her voice stitched along its crystal heart.
“Hear me, Vapra,” Tavra began. Her voice was in Amri’s mind. In Kylan’s song. She paused and looked at Amri in the strange dreamfast, her lavender eyes glittering like twilight. Amri couldn’t help but feel pride, a part of him in her words when she began again:
“Hear me, Gelfling of Ha’rar. I can only hope you hear me and recognize my voice. I do not have much time, so I can only tell you part of all I have to say. And it is that the Skeksis have lied to all of us. The dream on the pink petals is true. The Skeksis have begun draining us, deep in the Castle of the Crystal. My mother the All-Maudra knew this and planned to rise against them. And in punishment, the Ritual Master and the General murdered her.”
Amri felt a tremble in the dream, as if the earth itself was shivering. The whispers that shuddered through the tree’s veins and the ice and rock were from the Vapra. From anyone who was listening, who heard Tavra’s voice.
“I do not know what the future holds for the Gelfling, but I know this: No matter what the Skeksis say to you, no matter how dark the night may seem—there are friends in that darkness, waiting for you. Readying the torches we will bring against the Skeksis, when it is time for their reckoning. We will survive. We will endure. Wait for our signal. Let it guide you and we will be victorious, so long as we are together.”
It felt like the beginning of an electric storm crawling across the earth and skin. Amri felt the warming of kindling and a thin string of smoke. He felt footsteps, the earth shaking. Distant voices as Tavra finished:
“I know this and I wait for you, though it may be in the darkness. For in the shadows, we will light the fires of resistance.”
“Amri—Kylan—!”
CRASH!
Amri fell out of the dream as one of the Waystar trees cracked in half. It toppled, throwing clouds of snow and shards of ice into the air, refracting the light and splintering into rainbows. The snow and ice settled, and Amri climbed to his feet, drawing Tavra’s sword from his hip.
skekSa stood in the wake of the destroyed Waystar tree, giving her deadly sword one flick and sending the remains of the ice from its blade. Black blood dripped from across her beak, her eyes furious and vengeful. She let out an angry roar as she knocked the broken tree out of her way.
“I told you to leave,” she rumbled.
Naia appeared beside Amri. Across the copse, he saw Tae alight near Kylan. He wasn’t happy skekSa had come up the cliff after them, but at least she seemed to be slowed down by her weight in the snow.
“We tried to stop her, but she’s so strong,” Naia said. She had a cut on her cheek, an ugly bruise growing on her forehead. Yet fierce as ever, her brother’s dagger in her hand. “Did Tavra’s message . . . ?”
“The dream went out. It’s up to the Vapra now—are you all right? What happened?”
“She said—” Naia flinched and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. She’s a liar like the rest of them.”
“Now what have you done?” skekSa growled. “Stupid little Gelfling. I gave you a way out. And this is how you repay me? This is how you abuse my benevolence?”
“Benevolent? Is that what you think you are?” Tae shouted. She pushed Kylan behind her, baring her dagger that had already tasted skekSa’s flesh. “The Sifa trusted you. Have trusted you for trine upon trine. Was it all a lie?”
skekSa composed herself, just a fraction, standing straighter and sniffing.
“Little Tae,” she said, though a snarl sharpened the edge of her beak. She grabbed another of the Waystar trees and cracked its limbs in her claws, careless with her impossible strength. Its glow died like an ember pulled from the fire. “I would have taken Ethri and the Sifa across the Silver Sea. Far away from the Emperor and the castle and all of these stupid politics. But Ethri decided not to go. It was you who defied me. Declared your true allegiance. I am not an ally of the Sifa. I am your master.”
Tae drew herself back, wings flinching as skekSa swept forward. Amri tried not to back away as she loomed over them, standing in the center of the circle of trees.
“Now, as your lord, I will tell you the same thing the General and the Ritual Master are telling the Vapra below. At this very minute. The rebellion is dead and a lie, burnt to cold ash along with the All-Maudra. The Vapra, and the rest of the Gelfling, have only one fate: To bow to the Skeksis, and to gaze upon us with immortal fear. To cower in utter subservience.”
Her voice fell low and sinister as her breath clouded around them like a fog.
“There will be no more fires,” she said. “And there will be no resistance.”
Amri kept his back straight and pointed over the cliff.
“Then what’s that?” he asked.
skekSa’s piercing eyes glinted as she followed his gaze. Together, Skeksis and G
elfling watched. Peering through the dark, as one by one, the gold flames of the Vapra torches turned blue.
Then purple and red and pink. Like the flames they’d lit aboard the Omerya and the one that had resurrected the Wellspring. From above on the bluff, Amri could only see the fires, lighting one after the other like stars awakening at dusk.
“They heard you,” Amri whispered, but Tavra was not on his shoulder. He realized he didn’t know where she was and hoped she was with Kylan and Tae.
The Waystar trees pulsed, then flashed, engulfed in the mystical, unburning fire like a miniature sun. The city below was lit as if it were daytime, rippling in unending colors. The light fell upon the icy streets, refracting into rainbows until the citadel itself ignited with the light of the fire in the sky. It was too bright. Amri covered his eyes, though he desperately wanted to watch.
When he was able to look again, he fell silent with the rest of them.
Blazing on every faceted, icy wall of the Vapra citadel were dream-etchings, burned across the citadel like ink on parchment. Like the etchings on the deck of the Omerya and the cloisters near the Wellspring . . .
Like on a wall, Amri realized. A wall engulfed in the flame.
He stared in wonder at the etchings as they rippled across the broad surface of the citadel, unraveling for all to see. The depictions of the Omerya, the Sifa, Maudra Ethri. The shade-filled leaves of the Wellspring Tree, protecting the Dousan from the darkening storm.
And now the next verse of the song, which they had told that very night atop the frozen bluffs: Shining like a star, radiant with light, was the image of a Vapra soldier-princess, the crest of six trees emblazoned on her living crown.
CHAPTER 25
SkekSa stared, wide-eyed, rage saturating her dark eyes and making her look more Skeksis than ever. Amri tried not to let it frighten him. Not now that they’d had their victory lighting the Vapra flame. All that was left was to escape the Mariner’s clutches. Survive, like Tavra had said.
Naia stood beside him, turning her sights from the citadel to the Skeksis. Across the ring of trees, Tae did the same, protecting Kylan as he put away his firca.
skekSa gnashed her fangs and gestured with her sword. It was longer than Amri was tall, heavy and sharp and wickedly hooked, made for killing.
“I’ll give you one more chance. Come with me, Naia, and I will let the others go. If you resist, I will kill them and take you with me anyway. If it comes to that, their blood will be on your hands.”
“I’ll die before I go with you,” Naia said.
skekSa’s purr turned into a vicious growl in her throat, deep and primal.
“Have it your way.”
She charged at Tae, swinging her sword. Even if its edge were not sharp, the sheer power and weight of it would crush a Gelfling if it struck. Tae leaped, wings taking her up so her toes touched the gleaming metal of the blade. She ran along the sword, leaping again and slashing with her dagger.
“We have to help her!” Amri said, raising Tavra’s sword. It was hard to imagine bringing it against the Skeksis, especially when he still had no real skill with it. But what else could he do?
“Take care of Kylan,” Naia said. “Remember thirty parries? We’ll try to hold her back. Onica was supposed to bring her ship around to the bay!”
She grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. Then she ran ahead, dagger shining in the Waystar light, loosing a mighty battle cry that caused even skekSa to pause. Amri watched for only a moment as Naia and Tae converged on the Skeksis Mariner, blades inescapable as a storm at sea or in sand.
He found Kylan near the old Waystar tree that had carried their message, Tavra on his shoulder. On the other side of the tree was the edge of the cliff, and after that, a long, hard fall into the sea.
“We can’t let her destroy the trees,” Kylan said. “Not after they helped us send Tavra’s message—”
“We have to save ourselves first!” Tavra said.
“But how?” Amri cried, glancing over the cliff, but no Sifa lantern broke the black darkness of the ocean that stretched below the cliff. If they could escape at all, it would be down the mountainside. And to do that, they had to get past skekSa—
“Amri, look out!”
Amri turned at Naia’s warning. Unnaturally fast, skekSa rushed at him, sword dropping from the sky like lightning. He raised his sword in time to block the blade, but she twisted hers to the side. The hook caught and wrenched his sword from his hand, sending it flying. Unarmed, he backed away, trying to keep from shaking as he put himself between the Skeksis and Kylan.
Naia and Tae caught up. Before skekSa could cut Amri and Kylan down, Naia was on skekSa’s back, Tae slashing with her dagger as she came around the front. skekSa stumbled back, unable to grab Naia and avoid Tae’s flurry of attacks at the same time.
Skeksis blood stained the snow and skekSa roared, finally leaping back and away from the reach of Tae’s vicious blade. Distance gained, skekSa reached over her shoulder and tore Naia from her cowl, throwing her aside. Her entire body steamed with rage as she lumbered again toward the Gelfling huddled at the foot of the ancient Waystar tree.
“She’s coming for us,” Amri said. “She still doesn’t want to kill Naia, but she’ll certainly kill us if she has the chance!”
Tae panted from where she crouched, in front of Amri, Kylan, and Tavra. Wings splayed, dagger poised to defend them with every ounce of silver metal. She glanced back, her eyes darting from Amri to Kylan and finally landing on Tavra.
“Whatever happens,” she said, “protect them. Light the fires. I believe in you.”
Before they could ask what she meant, Tae tossed back her cloak, baring her wings, brilliant and blue. As skekSa approached, she leaped into the air. The wind froze across the scales of Tae’s wings, glittering like the stained glass that laced the citadel.
She folded her wings, dropping from the sky with astonishing speed. skekSa lifted her sword against the Sifa, but she was too slow.
Tae’s dagger bit. skekSa’s sword flipped into the air, and Amri caught his heart in his teeth when he saw that the Skeksis’s severed hand still clutched the hilt as it flew.
skekSa screamed. She grasped the stump where her hand had been.
“How dare you!” she cried, over and over. “HOW DARE YOU!”
Tae landed before skekSa, up to her knees in snow, showered in the frozen spittle spraying from skekSa’s beak. She drew her dagger back, as if she might take another of the Skeksis’s hands. Her eyes were up, but Amri saw movement below.
“Tae, look out—”
One of skekSa’s smaller arms slipped out from the Skeksis’s coat. Something flashed, and a BOOM rang through the mountain air. A cloud of smoke exploded from skekSa’s hip, blasting Tae off her feet. She crashed into one of the Waystar trees, leaving a red mark on its glowing white bark where she struck. Then she fell into the snow and did not rise.
The smoke cleared. skekSa coughed and reached into the depths of her coat again, drawing out a leathery, egg-shaped device and holding it in her tiny palm. Her breath rasped in anger and pain, her blood still falling on the white snow. She stumbled to one knee.
“I can’t believe this,” she panted. “Can’t believe it one bit.”
“Onica,” Kylan said in the tense silence that followed. The song teller’s eyes were wide with fear from what they had witnessed. From where he stood, he could see over the cliff. His voice cracked as he whispered, “I can see her lantern light . . .”
“Go to Tae,” Amri said. They had to assume she was alive, that she had survived the blast. He didn’t know what they’d do if she hadn’t.
“But what if she’s—” Kylan didn’t finish.
“We’ll have to figure out something! I’ll find Naia . . . Hurry!”
Kylan nodded and ran to where Tae had landed as Amri went the other direction. H
e found Naia in a mound of snow, groaning. He stooped and pulled her up. If they could just make it to the cliff before skekSa came after them again—
“Are you all right?” he asked. “Are you hurt? Onica’s reached the bay.”
“I’m hurt, but I’ll be fine,” Naia said. She slipped off Amri’s shoulder to bear her own weight. He was worried she would try to fight again, try to take on the Skeksis even though he had no idea how. To his relief, she shoved him toward the cliff and said, “We’ll have to fly down. It’s our best chance!”
They trudged through the snow as quickly as they could. Amri could see Kylan kneeling beside Tae up ahead. It didn’t look good.
“Oh no,” Naia breathed. “Tae—”
“You’re not getting away.”
skekSa’s voice brought them to a halt. skekSa had seen them, seen the direction in which they were headed. In spite of her grisly wound, skekSa took hold of one of the Waystar tree limbs, using it to pull herself to her feet. In her little hand, she still held the egg-like contraption that had blasted Tae. Without breaking stride, she hurled it at them with deadly aim.
“Naia!” Amri lunged, snatching a fallen branch from the snow and flinging it as he knocked Naia aside.
His aim was good. The egg exploded in the air, the blast knocking him into a spin in the freezing snow. He lost time, felt cold on his cheek. Then Naia’s arms around him as she tried to lift him. He tried to get his feet under him, but he could barely breath, let alone move.
She let him down, and he saw her step over him, brandishing her dagger as skekSa reached them. Amri groaned and tried to get up. Tried to master his limbs that refused to obey, even as skekSa stepped up, casting her shadow upon them. She had found her sword, held it in the hand that was intact, carelessly bleeding from the other as if it meant nothing.
“I don’t want to do this,” she said slowly, her blade tasting the snow at her feet. Her voice turned hard at the end, wicked as her sword. “I told you we had a deal—you ungrateful fool.”
